Category: Politics

2023: We Won’t Allow ‘Peoples Destruction Party’ (PDP) Return To Power, Says El-Rufai

Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has taken a swipe at the main opposition party in Nigeria, The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying the APC is committed, by reaching a zoning formula agreement, to ensure the “Peoples’ destruction party” does not return to power.

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, said contrary to reports in the media of division among the APC governors, the agreement had been reached on the zoning formula.

He said: “We have agreed on a zoning formula for all the six geo-political zones. Essentially, the northern zone will have the positions the south have had in the last eight years. And vice versa.

“So, by the grace of God, on the 26th of March, we would have done our national convention.”

el-Rufai also said, “We are committed to ensuring that the Peoples, Destruction Party doesn’t come back to power.”

Hold Your Heads High; Aregbesola Tells APC Members as Oyetola Says “I am Choice of God”

Aftermath of Saturday’s governorship election, incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola and former Governor Rauf Aregbesola have opened up.
While Oyetola said he is the choice of God and those against him are working in vain, Aregbesola has told a faction of the party to hold their heads high in spite of the out come of the governorship primaries that took place.
While the Oyetola camp rated the exercise as credible and fair, the Aregbesola camp, whose candidate, Moshood Adeoti came second in the race, alleged massive irregularities.
Chairman of the faction of the APC, Rasak Salinsile, had alleged on Saturday that the names of members of the party opposed to Oyetola were deleted from the party registers used for the exercise.
Many videos had surfaced on Saturday how where many members displayed their membership slips at polling centres but could not find their names.
A statement on behalf of the Minister of Interior, said reports of what he called “shenanigans of the officials who conducted the sham of an election” had reached him.
He said, “We have been inundated with reports state-wide of how your names were expunged from the party’s voters register, which was not made available until this morning, contrary to the convention of making the list available to the candidates before the election.

“We have heard of how party registration cards were being hawked this morning to the supporters of the state governor.

“We have also received reports of how accreditation was not done at all in many wards and how people without the party identification just participated and queued behind the governor in many polling units.

“We have received the report from our members and independent observers, how government officials and notable supporters of the governor officiated in the election, how votes were farcically counted in favour of the governor and how the votes recorded for him were more than the number of voters accredited ab initio in many units.

“We have heard of the absence of result sheets and other vital documents for recording results and vital data. We note also the absenc

Sanwo-Olu gave the advice in Ikeja, during the 17th Edition of the Executive/Legislative Parley, with the theme: ”Mobilizing Citizens as a Social Capital Towards 2023 General Elections”.⁣
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He said that Tinubu had selflessly given himself to the people of Lagos during his tenure as the governor, and to Nigeria as a whole, and recorded many achievements.⁣

”This, indeed, is the time to pay him back with our unwavering support. He is, no doubt, the right and best man for the job. He knows the issues plaguing our nation like the back of his hands and he has the magic wand to fix it.⁣

The House of Representatives has ordered an immediate investigation over the usage of over N165 billion budgeted to the Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS) within the last two years.

Adopting a motion under matters of national importance sponsored by Mr. Ndudi Elumelu at the plenary presided by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, the House explained that the measure was aimed at addressing the appalling state of custodial facilities and general welfare of inmates in the country.

This move came few days after former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola lashed APC National leader, Bola Tinubu over wet cloth.

Aregbesola Mocks Tinubu Over Wet Cloth

Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, has mocked National Leader of the All Progressives Congress and former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu.

Speaking in the Oriade Local Government Area of Osun on Monday, Aregbesola while castigating Tinubu said, “Won ti n to ara” which is translated in English “they’re already urinating on themselves.”

This is coming days after the APC National Leader was seen in a viral video with suspected pee stains on his cloth during a visit to a monarch in Ogun State, the Awujale of Ijebuland.

The Senior Pastor of the Trinity House, a non-denominational Christian centre headquartered in Lagos, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo has said a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu can not succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

He said;

“Tinubu is my personal friend, as a person, I love him very much, he has been very kind to me, he is a good man, but leadership today in Nigeria is greater than any personal ambition, the kind of leader we want is not someone who says being president has been my life ambition, no, you must do better than that. What are you offering the people? What are you giving the people, where are you taking them to, do you have the interest of the people at heart? Or you are just trying to put on your CV that you became president of Nigeria?

We don’t have time for that anymore in Nigeria, we want people who really want to serve the people, people who are really ready to lay themselves down for the people, people who have vision for Nigeria, people who are bold enough to take the right decision and not going to offer us on the altar of politics and compromise us just because they want something or the other and take us back to square one again and we are suffering all over the place.

I am looking for that righteous person who is ready to stop all these corrupt practices and not dashing people money, but using the money to educate them, build schools, hospital and laying infrastructures.

What drives an economy is production, the ability to transform raw materials into finished goods. When you continue producing, there will be more than enough for everybody to consume.

We want leaders that will encourage production, it means that the constitution of Nigeria must be changed and fashioned in such a way that there can be complete production of all the resources of Nigeria.”

Kola Bello, the All Progressives Congress (APC) youth leader in Iseyin, Oke-Ogun area of Oyo state, is dead.

Bello died in a car accident along Ibadan-Iseyin road at the weekend while returning home from the APC’s ‘Southwest Progressive Youth Festival’ held in Ibadan.

His body has been deposited at a morgue in the state.

May his soul rest in perfect peace, Amen.

A petition started on the online petition aggregator, change.org for the conduct of a referendum in Yoruba land has been amassing signatories.

The petition was started by one Oludare Yerokun for the Yoruba Referendum Committee, and to the governors and members of the Houses of Assembly in Oyo, Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ondo and Ekiti states.

The petition which is aimed at getting 15, 000 signatories, has, at the time of filing this report garnered 10, 864 signatories.

According to the petition, the group is calling for a referendum that will bring about true federalism in the country in which Nigeria will be governed by members of a Federal Presidential Council.

The group said its activities are aimed at popularizing the idea of restructuring among the people of the South-West region such that the people will influence the decision-makers in bringing this to reality.

It further stated that members of the Houses of Assembly in the six states owe it a duty to the Yoruba Nation to re-establish the Sovereignty of the People by passing a bill for a referendum into law.

The petition reads, “Whereas the question may be asked as to why a Yoruba Referendum when the 1999 Constitution is being amended, expected to result in ‘devolution’, ‘fiscal federalism’, reduction of ‘exclusive legislative lists’ being touted as the solution to Yoruba (and Nigeria’s) Underdevelopment…

“What We Want: (a) A Federal Nigeria, through a valid Federal Constitution, to be known as The Union of Nigerian Constituent Nationalities, with a Federal Presidential Council, whose members will be selected or elected from each of the Nationalities as Federating Units and from whom a Head of State will be selected or elected as the primus-inter-pares with an agreed term.

“(b) YORUBALAND, geo-politically known as the ODUDUWA REGION and consisting of the present states of Ekiti, Eko, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and all Oodua lands in Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States to become an AUTONOMOUS Nation in a UNION OF NIGERIAN CONSTITUENT NATIONALITIES and recognizing all persons in the Diaspora, of African descent who claim Oduduwa/Yoruba ancestry, either through cultural affiliation or genealogical connection.

“(c) The Central Government of the Union shall have no power to interfere nor intervene in the affairs of the ODUDUWA REGION, save as shall be agreed to by three-quarters of the members of the Region’s Parliament.

“(d) There shall be a Division of the Federal Armed Forces in the Region, 90% of which personnel shall be indigenes of the Region. The Divisional commander shall be an indigene of the Oduduwa Region.

“(e) ODUDUWA Region shall adopt a Parliamentary System of government. This Parliament shall have the power to make laws governing taxes, duties, excise, payment of debt, etc. It shall have the power to make laws governing the sourcing of funds on behalf of the Region and to regulate commerce with the co-prosperity spheres within the Union of Nigeria.

“This Parliament shall have the power to establish Regional Police Service with responsibility to investigate Regional crimes. This Police Service shall have no superintending control over the Provincial and Council Police service, but shall coordinate activities at the Regional, Provincial and Local council levels.

“(f) The Judicial power of the Region shall be vested in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Customary Court and Other lower courts as the Parliament may establish. There shall be a Court of Appeal in each of the provinces. There shall be, in each province, a High Court from which appeals shall lie to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

“(g) Oodua Customary forms of land ownership shall be respected. Exploitation of mineral resources shall be the prerogative of the host community without prejudice to the right of the Local, Provincial and Regional Governments to levy appropriate taxes for the welfare of the people of Oodua land and without prejudice to the right of the Federal Government to levy taxes.”

In an interview with SaharaReporters, a member of the Committee, Shenge Rahman Akanbi said one of the demands of the committee is the establishment of a Federal Presidential Council in Nigeria which will comprise of representatives of each nationality to enhance greater participation.

He said: “Yoruba Referendum Committee is a group on its own, it was brought into being to create awareness and campaign for the popularisation of the need to have popular acceptance of the question of restructuring of Nigeria. Of course, it cannot be done in a violent manner nor can it be done by the unilateral declaration of just one person or a group of persons.

“The question of self-determination of any people will only come as a result of the self-exercise for self-liberation of the people, not the pompous or arrogant declaration of a few persons. The people must be involved.

“We are not secessionists, the content of the flyer shows what we want to do to get popular approval by way of a referendum of the real federalisation of Nigeria and we cannot wish away the existence of the political establishment: governors, legislature and political forces while seeing the people as a dominant factor in this process.

“It is left for the political forces to align with the demands of the people when we have actually got our people to accept the idea to seek a referendum in such a manner that it will be impossible for the political contestants in Yoruba land to disregard or show indifference to the real question of the day — self-determination.

“We have seen series of examples like this in Catalonia, Ireland, Scotland, of course, ours is a non-violent one.

“From the benefits outlined in the flyer, we said we want Nigeria to be governed by a Federal Presidential Council instead of one single president. Each region will choose its candidate in the Presidential council and you will discover that over the years, one single federal election at the centre has always been a cause for a terrible struggle to outdo each other which has always involved mindless violence, killing, abuse of power and occasional cause to the extermination of opposition forces and we think enough is enough.”

Sources say Atiku’s decision to dump Obi was because he allegedly made little financial contributions to the 2019 campaign purse as well as inability to win his state Anambra and the South East for the party in the presidential election.

“Prior to the 2019 election, Governor Peter Obi didn’t have a strong political structure outside the South East. People just loved him because of his vast knowledge of the economy, winning an election goes beyond all that.

“To successfully run an election in this country you need money, connection, strong and vast political structure, etc, and these you find in abundance in Nyesom Wike. He is a good material any day and that’s not the kind of man you leave behind, especially if you want to win election in Nigeria,” according to a source close to the Atiku campaign team.

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has insisted that the North would produce Nigeria’s president in 2023.

Mohammed said the claim that power must shift to the Southern part of the country in 2023 is meant for the All Progressives Congress, APC, and not the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He said the North still has four years left, based on the arrangement of the PDP.

Mohammed disclosed this when a Contact and Consultation Committee he set up for his presidential ambition submitted its report to him on Friday at the Government House in Bauchi.

Mohammed said, “We are aware of the agitations of the southern part of the country because the leader of the country today, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North, will finish his tenure in 2023, so power should rotate to the South.

“But I want to say that I am in PDP, I am not in APC. It is the APC that has this burden (of zoning the presidency to the South).

In my party, the last President was from the South and he was my President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. During this period, my party was at the centre for 16 years, 14 of those years were led by the people from the South, so where is the justice and the justification? Therefore, it is the turn of the North (to produce the President).”

Some political stakeholders have been agitating for the Presidency to shift to the Southern part of the country.

Igbos have been in the forefront, agitating for the Presidency to move to their Southeast in 2023.

They claimed that Igbos have been denied the chance to rule Nigeria for too long, stressing that other regions have produced the president but Igbo’s